DA calls on ANC to fire Makana Municipality Mayor

JUNE 11, 2015

In the light of recent political leadership reshuffles in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and the Buffalo City Municipality by the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape on Thursday also called on the ruling party to fire its Mayor in Grahamstown.

"The Democratic Alliance calls on the ANC to add Makana Mayor, Zamuxolo Peter, to their cosmetic anti-corruption crusade.Last week the ANC fired the Mayor of Buffalo City Municipality, Zukiswa Ncitha, in an attempt to position their party as tough on corruption.

"Today the DA calls on the ANC to do the resident's of Makana Municipality the same favour by relieving them of their ghost Mayor who has been more absent than present in dealing with the numerous challenges faced by the municipality," said Andrew Whitfield MP, Constituency Leader - Frontier.

"Mayor Peter has presided over the collapse of Makana Municipality since he was elected in 2011 and must now be given the axe.

"The DA has repeatedly brought motions of no confidence in the Mayor only to be voted down by the ANC in council. It is now high time the ANC did the right thing and fire the Mayor."

Whitfield said that due to the Mayor's "invisible leadership" the municipality was placed under administration last year as the institution could no longer meet its financial obligations and service delivery had ground to a halt.

"The DA welcomes the recent announcement of an investigation into the 'ghost employees' scandal in Makana. However it is the Mayor that has become the number one ghost employee of Makana as nobody is quite sure what he is being paid to do.

"In less than five years Mayor Peter has brought the municipality to its knees with the water crisis reaching critical proportions at various stages during his tenure," he said.

"There has been a general absence of service delivery since 2011 including an inability to tackle the scourge of illegal dumping and the ongoing decay in infrastructure such as the potholed roads.

"Under the administration of Pam Yako the municipality remains critical but stable with the greatest hurdle to success being ANC political interference in the administration."

Whitfield said that after a long hard battle by the DA, the Kabuso Forensic Investigation was released earlier this year and is now before a committee of council.

"This committee now needs to take decisive action against those individuals implicated in the report and it clearly implicates Mayor Peter.

"If the Mayor is found to have broken the law then charges must be brought against him and he must face the full might of the law whether the ANC have the guts to fire him or not," he said.

"In order for this municipality to recover from Mayor Peter's tenure of ineptitude and maladministration he needs to be removed from office. A fish rots from the head, as they say."

He said that in the latest Auditor General Report Makana Municipality obtained its 5th consecutive disclaimer audit opinion. This is yet another indictment on his inability to do his job.

"In contrast 17 of the 24 municipalities in the DA led Western Cape received clean audits. A clear sign that the DA delivers clean, effective government.

"It is this example of local government which proves that a fair and capable state that puts the people first can create opportunities that expand real freedom to its citizens," Whitfield described.

"When the ANC fire Mayor Peter we must not rejoice. We must ask why it has taken them so long. Why has the ANC allowed things to get so bad before taking action? The ANC must not be rewarded for doing the right thing. This is what they are expected to do.

"The DA is looking forward to the 2016 local government elections where the voters of Makana can send they strongest sign of disapproval by voting out the ANC and voting in the DA. If elected to government the DA will change Makana Municipality from a haunted house to prosperous city."